KRO: I wish these politicians would focus on climate change because it impacts all of us, especially the indigenous community, Hispanic community, Black communities – basically everyone that’s not cis het white. I think we need to be focusing on how corrupt the current government is and how the policing system constantly fails minorities. For example, I constantly hear about black trans women being killed and the police doing nothing about it. I won’t ever have to experience that – I won’t ever have to experience what they go through every day because I am white and I am ‘stealth’ because I still present very feminine. I think older trans people are scared to speak out because of how they were raised and how transphobic our community has always been. It’s important for younger generations to speak up now because we can.
Even as a little kid I knew I was different, I just didn’t know how. When I was 10 years old I found trans people on YouTube and thought, ‘Oh that’s makes so much sense!’ Then I found the non-binary community and the label ‘agender.’ I was scared to come out as non-binary, but I finally felt like I knew who I was. I want other trans and non-binary kids to find support somehow, to know that there are other people out there like them and that they’re not alone. Go find a support group online, find your people.
MOM: I literally grew up in the gay community- most of my family on my mom’s side is gay so I’ve been around gay people, drag queens, everything. Even though I was comfortable in that community, we didn’t have any sort of queer education and I think it’s really important that our kids have that so they can start becoming themselves at a younger age. I was 26 when I came out, but I knew I was gay when I was 5.
KRO: The politicians are scared that people are going to rise against the power, find out the truth - that trans people aren’t these scary, evil monsters and that the laws they’re putting in place actually put us in more danger. They’re scared, and they want to outnumber and silence us. Every minority group goes through this. It’s just fear. Politicians think that by putting in place these laws we’re going to calm down, but it’s going to make us even more mad and we’re going to do even more stuff to fight them.